Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2021, Inferno is Catherine Cho's memoir exploring motherhood and her experience of post-partum psychosis. With raw honesty and emotion she discusses her experience of ending up in an involuntary ward, segregated from her family and her son Cato. She takes to writing down her thoughts to make sense of her emotions, her memories and what she knows to be true.

The memoir is heartbreaking and incredibly revealing about Catherine Cho's experience of psychosis and the impact it had on her and her family. She talks about the difficulties of motherhood and what it means to identify as a mother. How this made her feel and how her psychosis impacted on her relationship with her son, Cato.

Throughout her memoir she draws on her Korean traditions and tales to help the reader understand her experience and her upbringing.

This is not an easy read as Cho also dives back to earlier periods in her life where she was in an abusive relationship. However there were moments of light, particularly as she spoke about her relationship with her husband James. The support and love he gave her and his focus on helping her get well. It was so clear throughout the whole memoir the real bond and love between the pair of them and it really touched me.

This was a beautifully moving and haunting exploration of Cho's experiences of motherhood and post-partum psychosis. To read her experiences of how she felt she has lost her self and memories, and how a chasm had opened up with the people closest to you in your life was so heartbreaking. This is a memoir that will stay with me for a long time and it entirely deserves it's place on the shortlist as I'm pretty blown away.